Gas-furnace for boilers



(No Moaei. 4 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. R. JONES. V

GAS FURNACE FOB. BOILERS.

' No. 341,014. 4 Patented May 4, 1886 MIll l LEE; E E5- UT- 4&4; I fiQ/QZZZQ (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

W. R. JO'NE8.

GAS FURNACE FOR BOILERS. No 341,014. Patented May 4, 18,86.

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3 SheetsSheet 3.

7 (No Model.)

W. R. JONES.

GAS FURNACE FOR BOILERS.

Pm tented May 4, 1886.

UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM R. JONES, OF BRADDOCK, PENNSYLVANIA.

GAS-FURNACE. FOR BOILERS.

QPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 3%l,014, dated May 4, 1886.

- Application filed December 18, 1895. Serial No. 186,035. (No mndchl To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM R. Jones, of Braddock, in the county of Allegheny and State ofPennsylania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Gas Furnaces for Boilers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part, of this specification, in which- Figure l is a front view of abattery of boilers provided with my improvement, and is a section taken on the line :0 w of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of one of the boilers, taken on the line 2 a of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a side View of the gas and air feeding apparatus, shown partly in section. Fig. 4 is a vertical longitudinal section of a modification on the line to w of Fig. 6. Fig. 5 is an en larged vertical cross-section of the gas-burner pipc, shown in Figs. 2 and 4 on the line 1) o of those figures. Fig. 6 is a vertical crosssection on the line y y of Fig. 4, giving a front view of the modification shown in the latter figure. Fig. 7 is a vertical cross section through the smoke box and stack of a battery of boilers, illustrating a further modification of my improvement.

Like letters and figures of reference indicate like parts.

In the adaptation of furnaces to the combustion of gas, and more especially natural gas,it is important, in order that the best conditions of combustion be attained, that the air be heated before its introduction into the furnace, because when mixed with hot air the gas will burn very much more rapidly, and its carbon will be more thoroughly consumed than if cold air be supplied to it. This is especially important when gas is used for heating flueboilers, because the distance to be traveled by the burning fuel is not great, and any gas which is not consumed in the lines is wasted; hence it is desirable that the combustion of the gas should be made as rapid as possible, and this can only be done economically by means of the introduction of heated air to the gas at the proper point.

It is the object of my invention to provide convenient and useful means for the heating and introduction of the air of combustion for the purpose of securing the advantages above indicated.

I will now describe my improvement in detail, so that others skilled in the art to which it pertains may construct and use it.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, (Ht 1) b, &c., represent the members of a battery of boilers, each of which is provided with a separate firechamber, 0, and a flue. a, leading underneath the boiler to the rear, where it communicates with tubular fines d, arranged inside of the boiler, and discharging at the front thereof into a skirt or smoke-box, 6. Each of the smoke-boxes e is provided with a neck-flue, f, which connects the smoke box with a horizontal discharge-flue, g. The main vertical stack-flue or chimney h leads from the middle part of the horizontal flue, and the boilers of the battery are preferably arranged on each side of it, as shown in Fig. 1. The stack thus acts as a common discharge for the products of combustion from all the boilenfurnaces.

i i are the gas-burners, suitably arranged in the combustion chambers, entering the front walls of the latter. Each gas-supply pipe has at its end a. nozzle, j, similar in form to the nozzle of a water-ejector pump,which projects into the gas burner pipe, (see Figs. 2 and 3,) and just back of the end of the nozzle an airpipe, 7., enters the burner-pipe and supplies it with air. This is derived from the following system of regenerating apparatus: A hollow chamber,l, preferably of circular or disk form, is suspended in the smoke-box e,just in front of the boiler-fines (Z, and an air-pipe, m, is arranged axially within the discharge-flue 9, preferably extending throughout its entire length, and joined at intervals to the several hollow disks by connecting pipes or fiues n. The pipe in derivesits air through one or more intake-pipes 0, which project from the horizontal pipe in through the shell of the flue 9 into the outer open air.

Thus constructed, the operation of my-improvement is as follows: The valvep of thegassupply pipe having been opened, a jet of gas will be discharged through the nozzlej into the burner-pipe, and this by suction will induce a current of air through the pipe is into the interior of the burner, where it will be drawn forward in an annular sheetaround the jet-pipe, and before emerging from the discharge of the burner will be thoroughly mingled with the gas. The air thus introduced must of necessity have first passed through the pipes 0, m, and n, and through the disk or chamber l,and in its passage it will have been heated to an intense degree. The chamber Z is directly in the path of the flame and heated products of combustion from the boiler-fines, and the pipe m,being within the discharge-flue g, is also exposed to a considerable degree of heat. The sides of this pipe and of the chamber will therefore become very hot, and will communicate their heat to the passing air, whose temperature, when it mixes with the gas in the burner, will be quite great enough to effectapractically perfect combustion. In this Way I am enabled by means of a simple and cheaply-constructed apparatus to secure the best conditions of combustion. and to economically utilize heat which would otherwise be wasted.

It will be noticed that in Fig. l the horizontal flueg is contracted in diameter for a short distance from each end, the reason for which is that considerably less smoke and gas pass through the parts of the pipe near its ends than toward its middle, where it receives the waste and consumed gas from all the boilers. The draft of the furnaces is thus equalized, and a further advantage is gained in that the flue is not made unnecessarily large in any place, and that the heat is thus more concentrated upon the air-pipe.

In Fig. 2 I have shown a convenient arrangement of the heating-chamber Z within the smokebox. I do not, however, desire to limit the following second and fourth claims of this specification to that peculiar construction, since it maybe otherwise arranged-for example, as in the modification illustrated in Figs. 4 and 6. In these figures the walls of the smoke-box c are made double-2'. 6., with outer and inner concentric shells r and sleaving an intervening annular air-space, r, inclosing the sides of the smoke-box, except at the edit of the neck-flue. This air-space is connected with the air-pipe m by the pipe a, which enters the chamber 1"',preferably at the upper part thereof. The pipe It leads from the bottom of the heating-chamber into the burner in the same manner as that before described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2. The sides of the smoke-box, becoming very hot by the passage of the products of combustion into it from the fines, will heat the air in the regeneratingchamber 1", and will secure a constant supply of hot air to the combustion chamber.

Fig. 7 shows my improvement properly modified .for its adaptation to a battery of boilers, which discharge directlyinto a single skirt or smoke-box covering the ends of all the boilers. In such case theheating-chamber Q is formed by constructing the smoke-box with a double wall and providing the intervening airspace r" with suitable intake-pipes s,whieh may enter the chamber dir ectly from the outer air, or may be arranged to pass thereto through the stack or other heated parts of the furnace.

As above indicated, my improvement is susceptible of very many modifications in the manner of arranging the air-regenerating chamber in the smoke-box. I have shown enough of them to completely illustrate the principle of my invention; but, in addition, it will be observed that a useful form would be the combination of the device illustrated in Fig. 2 with that shown in Fig. 4, by the situation of a hollow disk in a smoke-box whose walls are hollow, and connecting both the disk and the annular air-space with the burner-pipe.

Fig. 5 shows the form of burner which I use in the combustionchamber. It is a simple tube with closed end; but the circumference of the pipe has two longitudinal slots, 15, which are made a little to the sides of the uppermost part of the pipe. The situation of these slots causes the flame to spread in diverging sheets over a large surface.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, with a flue-boiler furnace having a smoke-box at the end of the boiler, of a fire-chamber, an air heating chamber, Z, situate in the smoke-box opposite to the discharge of the boiler-flues, and a pipe leading from the air-heating chamber to the fire-chamber,to supply hot air to support COIllbustion, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. A boiler-furnace having a smoke-box or skirt, an air-heating chamber arranged in the smokebox, a combustion-chamber, a gas-supply pipe discharging into the combustionchamber, and an air'pipe leading from said heating-chamber and discharging into the gassupply pipe, wherebya current of air through the heating-chamber is induced and combustion is supported, substantially as and for the purposes described.

8. The combination of the gas-burner pipe 2', having lateral longitudinal slots for the passage of gas, and gas and air pipes discharging into the burner, substantially as and for the purposes described.

4. The combination, with a series of adjacent boiler-furnaces having a common discharge-flue for the passage of the products of combustion, and smoke-boxes situate at the ends of the boilers, of air-heating chambers arranged in the smoke-boxes, an air-supply pipe arranged within the discharge-flue and communicating with the air-heating chambers, and pipes leading from the air-heating chambers into the fire-chamber to supply hot air to support combustion, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereofl have hereunto set my hand this 15th day of December, A. D. 1885.

\VILLIAM R. JONES. Witnesses:

THOMAS B. KERR, JNo. K. SMITH. 

